Edwards to Officially Visit UNC

Don Callahan

09/23/2014

With yet another restart to his recruitment, Ben Edwards is strongly considering North Carolina once again. That renewed interest will include an official visit to the school.

“I called Coach [Dan] Disch [on Monday night], actually,” Edwards said. “I called him last week and I’ve been talking to him a little bit on Twitter. He told me that they need safeties, they need DBs. I can come in and play right away, because they really need my position up there.”

Playing time has always been a big factor for Edwards, a 5-foot-11, 192-pound safety from Jacksonville (Fla.) Trinity Christian Academy.

UNC thought it had met its objective at safety for this class twice. First, Ronnie Harrison backed out of a year-long commitment in late July and flipped to Alabama. Jamile Johnson temporarily filled that void until an offer from Texas, an in-state school, led him to switch his commitment to the Longhorns.

“They need DBs for sure,” Edwards said.

Edwards has been on the opposite side of similar scenarios. In February, he committed to Ohio State. He then switched his commitment to Auburn in April. In early August, he backed out of his Auburn pledge.

“I’m just really taking my time,” Edwards said. “I want to make sure it’s the right school 100-percent. I’m going to do my own personal research with each school.”

Edwards will personally research four schools – Miami, UNC, Stanford, and UCLA.

“All four of them have a need at my position and they’re coming at me hard with their recruiting [efforts],” Edwards said. “I have a great relationship with all the coaches – I talk to the coaches from those schools almost every day. The academic reputation with each of those schools is important – all of them are pretty good in academics.”

Two of Edwards’s favorites already have a Trinity Christian product on their commitment list – UCLA (Victor Alexander) and UNC (Andre Smith).

“It would be fun to go to college with someone you went to high school with,” Edwards said. “So it’s a little bit of a factor.”

Smith’s commitment has already impacted Edwards’s recruitment. Smith is scheduled to officially visit UNC the weekend of Oct. 4 when the Tar Heels host Virginia Tech. Edwards is in the process of finalizing plans to do the same.

Edwards has made three visits to UNC, including last April’s spring game and last season’s victory over Boston College.

“I just want to get up there again, get around the players, be around the coaches again,” Edwards said. “I want to watch the game [and] watch how these safeties play. I want to sit down and talk to the coaches about everything.”